Melly's Menorah - Back

Behind this Star of David picture is an interesting Jewish-Identity-story which "baslow" was kind enough to share with me: About the picture: I grew up in an Orthodox Jewish home but no longer practiced the religion by the time I met my wife, who is not Jewish. She still goes to church but, over the years, has changed from Catholic, to Lutheran, to Episcopalian depending on which church in our neighborhood afforded her the most nourishing community. Our children have always been free to choose their own paths with respect to religion and, as a result, they have developed very individual, non-classifiable beliefs. Although they are not Jewish by Jewish law they both consider themselves to have at least one foot in the Jewish community. They have a father who is Jewish and who tells stories of an Orthodox childhood; they have relatives who are Jewish, some of them still Orthodox; and they live in New York City, the capital of Judaism in the United States. They understand very well that they would have been "Jewish enough for Hitler". When the winter holiday season comes around (Christmas/Hanukkah) we usually bring out the old children's books that the kids enjoyed and read them out loud. Sometimes the kids, who have both developed interests in acting, will recite passages and perform episodes in the books. My daughter Ruth has a special affection for "Melly's Menorah", about a Jewish Gopher Girl (I'm not making this up). She especially loves to enact the moment when Melly recoils in horror as her father, cleaning the house in preparation for Hanukkah festivities, obliviously vacuums up all of the Hanukkah cards she has been making.
Copyright: "baslow" from Flickr